The important distinction is not difficult to grasp. Major sporting events do not appear to create trafficking on their own. They can, however, concentrate demand, travel and anonymity in ways that make an existing problem easier to exploit.
That matters because the issue does not vanish when the fans go home. The deeper drivers - poverty, housing insecurity and the exploitation of vulnerable women and girls - are year-round problems.
What made this campaign notable is where it aimed its message. The report says advocates used football-themed warnings in cities including Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City, Boston, Seattle and the New York-New Jersey market to put attention on sex buyers, not only traffickers.
That is a significant shift in emphasis. Football often talks about legacy in terms of infrastructure, tourism and grassroots participation. This is a different kind of legacy debate: whether host cities and organisers are willing to confront the demand side of exploitation rather than treat it as background noise to the spectacle.
For tournament planners, this is not a side issue. It is part of the cost of staging mega-events in real communities. Safeguarding cannot stop at stadium security or crowd management; it has to extend into policing, public information and victim support.
The next test is whether those measures survive beyond the glow of the World Cup. That is the storyline to watch now: not just what football celebrates on the pitch, but what it is prepared to see off it.